Jiang Shi

 

 

ORIGIN

Chinese mythology/folklore.

 

FIRST SIGHTED/RECORDED

It is unknown what time they actually originated but there is apparently wooden ledgers dating back to about 2,700 years ago.

 

APPEARANCE

They can appear as either a normal man or a hideous creature. They generally have long sharp black fingernails, long tongues and greenish-white furry skin. Their hair is either long and white or bald. They are badly decayed (although, this tends to depend on how long they have actually been dead). They appear to be dressed in clothes from the Qing Dynasty. Their arms are always stretched out. They are blind.

 

GENDER

Male

 

ALSO KNOWN AS

Chiang-Shih, Goengsi (Cantonese), Kyonshi (Japanese), and Gangshi (Korean), Simplified Chinese: 僵尸, Traditional Chinese: 僵屍 or Pinyin: jiāngshi. The translation literally means "stiff corpse" or Zombie.

 

REPELLED BY

They can be put to sleep by writing a certain spell on a piece of yellow paper and putting it onto their forehead. Another way of evading them is to hold your breath. They are blind so your breath is their way of detecting you. Like any other typical vampire, you can throw seeds or rice in their path, they will be compelled to count every grain before they carry on. Sticky rice is believed to draw out the bad spirit. Chicken eggs and the blood of a black dog are said to be used as repellents.

 

MAGICAL POWERS/SKILLS

They appear to have some sort of superhuman strength (not uncommon for a lot of these types of creatures). Rather than suck a person’s blood, they are thought to actually steal their breath. They also have a very vicious nature, everything from ripping off a person’s limbs to rape.

 

HISTORY/ABOUT

They are reanimated corpses that, literally, hop around. They kill living creatures so as to absorb their life essence. Their name comes from a practice in Chinese folklore where, if a family could not afford the travel to get a family member from where they died, they would hire a Taoist priest to reanimate the corpse so that it would hop back home for its burial. This is known as "Travelling a Corpse over a Thousand Li" (千里行屍). The priest would be the only one to transport them to their town as it was deemed bad luck for anyone to set their eyes on them. They done this at night only, ringing bells as they done so. This practise was popular in Xiangxi, where they used long bamboo rods to transport them. They are said to be created when a person’s soul fails to leave their body. These can come down to many factors, such as, a violent death, murder, suicide, improper burial or, quite simply, them just wanting to stay around and cause trouble. They are considered vampires by westerners (although, western influence is what actually brought the blood sucking influence into it). They have no self-awareness or independent thought, this is why they are also called zombies.

 

CAN BE FOUND

According to legends, during the day they either rest in coffins or hide in dark places such as caves. Can also be found in a hollow tree.

 

TALES

There are 2 oral accounts of transporting corpses in Liao Yiwu’s "The Corpse Walker". A lot of people speculated that the tales were made up by smugglers so that they could disguise the illegal activities and scare off the law. Some believe that they are made and controlled by a necromancer.

 

ANY SIGHTINGS?

In Mian County, in Chinas Shaanxi province, the rural folk never go out after dark.

 

SIMILAR CREATURES

Slavic Vampires